The Tappan Zee Bridge from South Nyack. / Peter Carr/The Journal News

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and Theresa Juva-Brown

Drew Fixell

Patricia DuBow

Jen Laird-White

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While many local elected officials have happily pledged their support for the $5 billion plan to replace the Tappan Zee Bridge, it hasn’t been that easy for the mayors of the villages next to the 3-mile span.

Those leaders have the difficult task of quelling residents’ anxiety while fighting to ensure their communities are protected during the five years of construction, expected to start next year.

“We represent the people who are the most frightened,” Nyack Mayor Jen Laird-White said. “We need good answers to give them.”

Many answers, such as whether the state will pay for sound-reducing windows in people’s homes, have yet to come, though the state has outlined some plans to mitigate noise and pollution. Those plans include limiting pile driving during certain times of the day and putting up sound barriers in some places.

“In a project of this size, with this enormous regional significance, it’s inevitable that the localities in which it takes place are going to feel frustration,” Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell said. “The very local interests with those who live closest to the project do not always coincide with the state’s interests.”

Last week, just before the project gained federal approval, the mayors of Nyack, South Nyack, Grand View and Piermont met privately with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s secretary, Larry Schwartz, and others from the project team. Fixell was invited, but couldn’t attend.

Laird-White said the two-hour session was “a little late but a very important inclusionary first step.” She’s concerned about how high tolls will go to pay for the twin-span and whether mass transit will eventually be added to Interstate 287.

“The state says they understand the concern about tolls. ... They understand the concern about transit. They are sympathetic. What that results in, we’re all anxious to hear,” Laird-White said.

Grand View Mayor Lawrence Lynn called on the state to convert the planned bicycle and pedestrian lane on the new bridge into another traffic lane, possibly for buses.

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The mayors said they were also worried there will be no public restrooms or shelters nearby to accommodate the large number of people expected to use the recreation path. Many Grand View homeowners and Salisbury Point residents already complain that cyclists on the two-lane River Road sometimes use their bushes as toilets.

Meanwhile, South Nyack Mayor Patricia DuBow has been pushing the state Thruway Authority to overhaul the Exit 10 interchange, the first exit on the Rockland side of the bridge.

The space, which is owned by the Thruway, is an eyesore filled with cars, trailers, and other equipment. The state has said it plans to put a state police barracks there, but the village wants a piece of the property for a small office building and park. Because village residents will have to endure years of disruption during the bridge work, that “would give us something back,” DuBow said.

Lynn said he left last week’s meeting feeling optimistic, adding that Schwartz “really gets the issues and is sympathetic to needs of the villages.”

“We may not get 100 percent of what we want, but I think we’ll get a lot of what we ask for because I don’t think we asked for anything unreasonable,” Lynn said.

Laird-White acknowledged the state has gone “above and beyond” in community outreach. And state officials have been successful in easing some fears. For example, much of the construction material will be hauled in from the river to minimize the use of local roads. Instead of parking in residential neighborhoods, workers will be bused in to the site.

Brian Conybeare, the state’s community liasion on the project, said in an email the state has held 56 community meetings and is planning more. It has also responded to hundreds of emails and phone calls.

“We are committed to continuing to work with local mayors, residents and everyone involved in the Tappan Zee Bridge project throughout the process,” he wrote. “We have already acted on their recent requests for new fencing, tree-trimming and cleanup of Thruway staging areas in neighborhoods surrounding the span. This is in addition to the extensive mitigation measures we will be working with community leaders and neighbors to put in place, including setting locations for where noise, air quality and vibration monitors will be placed. People will be able to access the information in real-time on the Internet.”

Fixell, Tarrytown’s mayor, along with several village officials, last met with the state’s Tappan Zee project team during the summer, and expects to meet with them again.

The mayor, however, declined an invitation to join a media event on Aug. 20 in Piermont where, in front of dozens of elected officials from across the region, Cuomo touted the growing support for the project. Earlier that day, New York’s regional transportation council, which includes the county executives from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam, had approved the replacement plan, allowing the governor to formally apply for a $2.9 billion federal loan.

“I don’t think our place is to be cheerleaders for the project,” Fixell said. “We have very specific concerns that, in all likelihood, won’t be resolved until the process is very, very far long.”